LeGrande Ogden Cole, Jr. entered the Naval
Air Cadet Division Program at Pensacola in August, 1961, and received his
wings at Corpus Christi in March, 1963. He completed 100 combat missions
during his first tour of duty in Vietnam from the USS INTREPID and returned
to the INTREPID for a second tour ofduty as a member of Attack Squadron
15.

On June 30, 1967, Commander Cole launched in
his A4C Skyhawk attack aircraft as a member of a flight which was to execute
an air strike on the thermal power plant at Vinh, North Vietnam. He was
section leader of a four plane division of bomber aircraft. Cole initiated
the attack with his wingman and encountered heavy opposition from anti-aircraft
artillery. As they approached the target, Commander Cole called, "rolling
in", which was the last communication from him.

Cole's wingman lost sight of him after their
initial bombing run among the flak bursts which were all around the area.
The wingman did report seeing an explosion far to the south of the target.
He assumed that it was a stray bomb but later decided it must have been
Cole's aircraft hitting the ground. Other witnesses observed a large fireball
to the south of the target. It appeared larger than a bomb blast. Bomb
assessment photographs of the target and vicinity were taken by an RF8A
aircraft shortly after the attack. Examination of the photographs revealed
no identifiable aircraft wreckage or indications of a survivor. Electronic
reconnaissance of the area was maintained by A1 and A4aircraft until late
afternoon on June 30. No emergency beacon or voicetransmissions were detected.

On July 1, 1967, a Radio Hanoi broadcast claimed
that two U.S. aircraft had been shot down and the pilots captured. One
was shot down over Thanh Hoa and the other over Vinh. Since none of the
pilots were identified as Cole, his status was not changed from Missing
In Action.

In 1975, information was received which possibly
correlated to the loss of Cdr.Cole. This information concerned the sighting
of a dead American pilot at approximately the same time and place that
Cole was lost. The source's description of the body roughly fits that of
Commander Cole.

Because Cole's plane went down in the vicinity
of a heavy enemy force, therewas every reason to believe the Vietnamese
can account for him - alive or dead.

In November 1988, remains were returned by
the Vietnamese said to be those of Cdr. Cole. Positive identification was
made by the Central Identification Laboratory and confirmed independently
by Dr. Michael Charney. Commander Cole was buried at Arlington National
Cemetery on May 5, 1989.

LeGrande Cole's family finally knows his fate,
and no longer hang in the tortuous balance of uncertainty. Nearly 2500
other families cannot rest, however until they get answers. Tragically,
thousands of reports have been received convincing many experts that there
are still hundreds of Americans still alive in captivity in Southeast Asia.
Cole was a prisoner every single day the Vietnamese refused to ship his
body home. How many will die before we bring them home?
Updated: 1 December 2001
Updated: 22 December 2005